Toddlers Into Kindergarteners: Emotions Study (T.I.K.E.S.)
T.I.K.E.S., or Toddlers Into Kindergarteners: Emotions Study, is a research project through the Child Study Center at Penn State University exploring the development of children’s emotions from toddlerhood through the start of Kindergarten. Data collection for the T.I.K.E.S. project began in 2006 and is ongoing. Currently, the children involved in our study are visiting us at the Child Study Center as they turn 3-1/2-years-old to play a variety of different activities with both staff and parents. Our kids have been having a great time at this visit and it has been great to see them back!
This project is funded through NIH Public Health Service, National Institute of Mental Health, R01 MH075750.
Emotions in Context, The University of Missouri
The same emotion can be elicited in multiple situations. For instance, a toddler can experience a stranger and a novel toy. The main goal of this study is to understand the effect of different situations on different emotions. We are particularly interested in children’s reaction to social novelty, object novelty, and risk avoidance situations. We will be addressing several research questions including: Are children equally wary around new people and new objects? Or can we identify children who are only wary of certain types of contexts (e.g. strangers)? What are the implications of this findings on psychological stress and behavior problem outcomes? Data collection for this project began in 2002 and finished in the spring of 2008.
This project is funded through NIH Public Health Service, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, R03 HD052669.
Mom Project, The University of Missouri
The mom project involves two studies. In the first part of the study I will be examining how maternal accuracy plays a role in the relation between fearful temperament measured at age 2 and adjustment to kindergarten at age 5. Given previous results we found suggesting that mothers who are particularly attuned to their children's fearfulness may in turn be overprotective and therefore exacerbate their children's fear, I would expect that fearful temperament will more strongly predict anxiety-relevant outcomes (e.g., general anxiety, separation distress, social inhibition) when mothers displayed higher accuracy at the toddler visit. The second study involves a similar age 2 laboratory visit but varies the tasks and instructions to mothers to allow for more individual differences in parenting behavior. With this study, I aim to better understand how maternal accuracy relates to parenting behaviors like protectiveness, intrusiveness, warmth, criticism, and encouragement to interact with novel stimuli. Data collection for Mom project began in the spring of 2006 and was finished in the spring of 2008.
This project is funded through NIH Public Health Service, National Institute of Mental Health, F31 MH077385.
Parents and Children Together (PACT)
A Place For Learning About Children and Families
PACT is a community partnership and interdisciplinary research center located Harrisburg, PA. The goals of the center are two-fold: (1) to engage a diverse urban community in the research process and ; (2) to enhance our scientific understanding of how diverse contexts and cultures influence early child development. PACT is funded, in part, by the Penn State Children, Youth and Family Consortium, the Child Study Center, the Prevention Research Center, and individual faculty grants.
Children's Attention to Emotions
One reason that different children may respond to the same event with very different emotions is that they are paying attention to different aspects of their environment. This study explores that possibility. Children between the ages of 4 and 8 years of age participate in games and activities while aspects of attention such as brain activity are monitered so that individual differences can be investigated. This project began in the spring of 2008 and is ongoing.
Health and Positivity in the Preschool Years (HAPPY)
HAPPY is a collaboration between the Emotion Development Lab at the Child Study Center and Dr. Cynthia Stifter's Lab, both at Penn State. This project, involving preschoolers and their mothers and fathers, explores the relationship between temperment and health. We are particularly interested in the role of positive emotions as a protective factor in physical and mental health. Moreover, we wish to examine how parent help to facilitate the appropriate and successful use of positive emotion to dampen stress or highten enjoyment. This project began in the fall of 2008 and is ongoing.
For more information about Dr. Cythia Stifter's work please visit her faculty webpate at:
http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/HDFS/faculty/stifter.html
For more about the other projects currently happening in her lab please visit: http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/ebp/
